Brew City’s Second Generation

How craft brewers revived Milwaukee’s beer tradition

By
the 1970s, American beer was a mass-produced commodity with little
character, culture or, letâ€™s face it, flavor. Faceless machines and
automated programming dominated the immense brewing industry. The
distinguished traditions and styles of brewing that the German
immigrants carried with them were all but lost. But while light
pilsners and low-cal lagers stocked store shelves, a grassroots home
brewing culture emerged. Beer drinkers understood that if they wanted a
full-bodied doppelbock, a strong stout or an above-average ale, they
had to make it themselves. The roots of home brewing grew todayâ€™s craft
brewing trend.

According
to the Brewers Association, the craft beer industry is defined by four
distinct categories: microbreweries, regional craft breweries, contract
brewing companies and brewpubs. Microbreweries generally include those
that brew less than 15,000 barrels a year, though some microbreweries
that exceed that number are still included in the category.

The
pioneer of craft brewing in Milwaukee is Randy Sprecher, who left his
position as a brewing supervisor at Pabst Brewing Co. in 1984 to start
his own company. Sprecher Brewing Co. was established in 1985 and
deemed Milwaukeeâ€™s first microbrewery since Prohibition. Using Old
World traditions, Spr cher makes year-round, seasonal, premium reserve
and limited release beers that range from Belgian triple ale and
German-style Schwarzbier to English-style pub ale and good olâ€™
German-style lager. The Sprechers host beer-pairing events around
Milwaukee where they discuss the flavor profiles of different beers and
which foods go best with each.

Brothers
Russ and Jim Klisch were the next home brewers to take the leap into
the microbrewery business when they founded Lakefront Brewery in 1987.
Like Sprecher, they pieced together their brewing facility with
previously owned dairy equipment. They soon outgrew their digs in
Riverwest and moved into a former coal-fired power plant on a bank of
the Milwaukee River.

Growth
of the brewery has been strong, especially because of its innovative
contributions to the brewing industry. In 1996, their Lakefront Organic
E.S.B. was the first certified organic beer to be labeled in the United
States. The Klisch brothers even managed to change the governmentâ€™s
definition of beer. In order to launch New Grist, a gluten-free beer
made with sorghum and gluten-free yeast, Lakefront
successfully petitioned to change the required 25% malted barley
content of beer. Their engaging brewery tour showcases where nearly 20
different beers are brewed, and includes a pint glass, four pours of
beer and a coupon for a free beer at participating businesses, all for
a mere $6.

By
definition, a brewpub is a restaurant-brewery that sells 25% or more of
its beer on-site, usually by sale in the restaurant and bar. In 1987
the Water Street Brewery opened Downtown, and for years it was the only
restaurant in Milwaukee where diners could enjoy their Usinger
bratwurst and Stuttgarter knackwurst with beer brewed on-site.
Brewmaster George Bluvas III offers six house beers and a specialty
brew that can be taken home in half-gallon refillable containers called
growlers.

In 1996
Milwaukee Brewing Co. started in the basement of a Cedarburg farmhouse
by, you guessed it, two home brewers: Jim McCabe and Mike Bieser. In
1997, they opened the Milwaukee Ale House in a brick and timber
warehouse building in the Third Ward and used a smallbatch brewing
process to make their handmade recipes for ales and lagers. After
unsuccessful attempts to package their popular beer brands at other
breweries in the state, Milwaukee Brewing Co. decided to just build its
own. The 2nd Street Brewery in Walkerâ€™s Point not only brews Pullchain
Pail Ale, Flaming Damsel Real Blonde and Louieâ€™s Demise, but it can
bottle and keg it too.

In
2007 Craig Peterson launched Bison Blonde Lager, Buffalo Water Brewing
Co.â€™s flagship beer. The brew is made in accordance with the Bavarian
purity law of 1516, which states that beer can only be made with water,
barley and hops (yeast wasnâ€™t included in the text because the Germans
didnâ€™t know it was an ingredient).

Buffalo
Water is a contract brewing company: It hires another brewery to
produce and bottle its beer, while it handles marketing, sales and
distribution of the beer. This is
something Peterson, a marketing and public relations consultant, does
well. In Milwaukee, you canâ€™t flick a bottle cap without it landing in
a pint of Bison Blonde.

You
may already be familiar with the Horny Goat Brewing Co. Its logo is
stamped on the fuel-guzzling yellow Hummer thatâ€™s been cruising around
the city. The company contracts with Stevens Point Brewery to brew
three beers: Horny Goat Belgian Wheat, Exposed and Hopped Up â€˜N Horny.
It began selling its beers in April and is opening a microbrewery and
visitorsâ€™ center, the Horny Hideaway, at the retired city pump house on
the south bank of the Kinnickinnic River.

The
hobby of home brewing has given birth to an entire industry, one that
is characterized by both unique and traditional brewing styles,
full-bodied and unfamiliar flavors, and unique, clever labels. The big
boys of beer may be gone, but Milwaukeeâ€™s brewing landscape is hardly
dry.

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